PORT ANGELES — A piece of Ground Zero transplanted across the nation from where it fell in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorists attacks will be dedicated today.
The 45-minute ceremony at Francis Street Park in Port Angeles will begin at 2 p.m.
It will be standing-room only. There will be no seating.
Parking will be on-street in the area and at Windermere at 711 E. Front St., a block away.
The monument, finished just last week, incorporates a piece of the fallen World Trade Center — a 9-foot-long, 1,400-pound I-beam from the Twin Towers.
It is a monument, not a memorial, said Alan Barnard, who organized fundraising and scheduling of the building of the new monument.
“We’re not there to grieve,” he said. “This is a dedication for a monument in recognition of our public safety workers.”
Among the 2,753 victims who died in the attacks on the World Trade Center were 343 firefighters, 60 police officers and eight private emergency medical technicians and paramedics.
Volunteers have installed the artifact on a concrete pedestal beside an existing public safety monument that was dedicated Sept. 11, 2002.
Coast Guardsmen Andrew Moravec and Sam Allen will speak about their two-year effort to bring the I-beam from Ground Zero to Port Angeles.
The ceremony will begin with the singing of the national anthem by Port Angeles city spokeswoman Teresa Pierce.
Patriotic music will be provided by the Grand Olympic Chorus.
A U.S. Coast Guard flyover is planned as well as a color guard ceremony that will include the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office and Port Angeles High School NJROTC cadets.
Public safety officers — including Coast Guard Capt. Tony Hahn, commanding officer of Air Station/Sector Field Office Port Angeles, and representatives of police, fire and sheriff agencies — will speak.
Linda Dowdell of Sequim, who lived close to Ground Zero at the time of the attack, will tell of her experience.
Fire and police equipment will be on display, and the American Legion Riders, assisted by the Patriot Guard Riders, will provide a flag line.
All public safety personnel — local, state and federal — are invited in or out of uniform, and the general public is invited, Barnard said.
Barnard will tell about the development of both the original public safety monument, finished in 2002, and the new one.
Barnard, a managing broker at Windermere Real Estate in Port Angeles, founded the nonprofit Public Safety Tribute Committee to create the first monument to public safety workers in the aftermath of 9/11.
When the first monument was completed in 2002, Barnard felt it was unfinished.
The effort by Moravec and Allen provided the missing piece.
The Port Angeles Fire Department Auxiliary served as the sponsoring nonprofit required by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to accept the artifact.
Barnard revived the public safety tribute committee, of which he is the lone member, to carry out the plans.
The monument cost $5,000, with funds donated by community members.
Volunteers included Port Angeles artist Bob Stokes of Studio Bob and Gray Lucier of Lucier Studio, engineer Steve Zenovic, Alex Anderson of Alex Anderson Concrete, Jay Ketchum of Affordable Crane, Laurel Black of Laurel Black Design, Bill Roberds and the Port Angeles Rotary Club, Nor’wester Rotary, Structures to Go and the city of Port Angeles.
